Prisoners
by Fairyfinder
Summary: Loki is sent to a SHIELD prison. Every second Tuesday of the month the supervillains are allowed to have a day for board games. What better game is there than chess? Oneshot!


SHIELD had a rather large amount of mighty enemies, as would be expected for such an agency. Past experience proved that it was usually much easier to eliminate the villains completely instead of risking more lives and taking them into captivity. As a result the SHIELD Maximum Security Prison had only a handful of criminals, warlords, and egotistical aliens residing there. The baddies that they captured rather than killed lived in this large concrete building (or in the depths far below it) with few luxuries and hardly any time out of their specially designed cells. However, on the second Tuesday of every month - when there were enough super heroes in the building to prevent a major catastrophe - the prisoners were allowed to have a recreation day.

Game Day, as it was referred to, was when the Avengers came to the prison for the monthly defensive check-up and the prisoners were allowed to get together and play board games, watch new movie releases, and socialize. The cafeteria even switched from the usual gruel to an actual meat and potatoes meal. It was a treasured day indeed.

On Loki's first Game Day he was allowed out of his cell and lead to a room filled with laughing crooks. He slid into the corner of the room and observed the chaos. Some of the ne'er-do-wells were crowded around a board game in which the object was to amass as much property as possible and charge the co-players when they landed on your piece of the board. More of the prisoners hooted with delight over by a television that displayed a sporting event of some kind. The majority of the people in the room, however, were gathered around a table boasting of the crimes they had gotten away with or the misdeeds they'd heard of others.

"One fella I heard of has this metal arm and he practically changes the course of history every time his employers let him out of his cage," A prisoner whispered, "Heard he's been working with the squirmers, if ya know what I mean."

"Squirmers?" A duller man at the table asked, "You mean Hydr-"

"Shut it!"

"Sorry, forgot they were still a big secret in the world of do-gooders."

An agent of AIM spoke up next. "I heard that in the basement of this place they've got a guy that would make all of us look like sissies. This guy is so powerful that the guards who watch him have to have a special kind of gun."

"Oh? What's he in for?"

"Not sure, but it must have been big - bigger than New York even!"

Loki scowled from his place in the corner. He didn't particularly enjoy hearing the other prisoners speak of him unless they were passing on warnings to stay away from him. Listening to these men casually compare his destruction on one of the biggest cities of Midgard with the work of some mortal made his blood boil. The mischief maker subtly inched closer, always keeping one eye on the guards by the door. When he was near enough the group of gossiping grizzlies he stepped into their circle and looked down his nose at each of them.

"Who is it that you speak of?" He asked, wishing his neon colored jumpsuit made for a more threatening outfit.

"Err," One man shifted uncomfortably, "Nothing - I mean no one! We weren't talking about no one!"

"Then you were talking of someone?"

"No."

"Your double negative implies otherwise."

"We… we weren't talking about anybody."

"Idiots, I could hear you from across the room." Loki rolled his eyes.

"Oh. Uh, we were just discussing one of the guys they keep downstairs. The lower you go the more dangerous blokes you'll find." A weasley looking man explained.

"I know that. How far down is this gentleman?" Loki had been told he himself lived on the lowest level of the building, but when he was lead up to this rec-room he had passed no other cells.

"Dunno. Nobody knows much about him." With that, the assembly scattered to different stations in the room and tried to avoid making eye contact with the Jotun in their midst.

Loki was curious. Who was this prisoner that was shrouded in mystery? Was he truly so powerful that special weapons were required in order to guard him? Perhaps the prisoners had been referencing Loki without knowing it. The guards on his floor carried the large guns Phil Coulson had once used and that had been designed with the Destroyer in mind. Surely that was all. The other prisoners were just mistaken. But still, what if there was someone on the floor beneath him? Someone with mind boggling power. Such a person could be… useful.

On the next Game Day Loki decided to forgo interacting with his fellow convicts and instead have a chat with a guardsman. The guard was enormous, but not at all intimidating once he'd been complemented once or twice. Loki learned his name was Alec Brown and that he had a pet cat named Noodle, who enjoyed refried beans more than anything else in the world. While such information was not necessarily helpful to Loki, sharing it did make Alec more trusting, which was the true intention.

Game Day came around again and Loki began to speak with his new guard "friend" about how wonderful it was that SHIELD allowed its prisoners a day for playing board games. Such games were certainly good for the mind and patently cleared some of the evil thoughts from the misguided rascals minds. It was too bad not all of the prisoners could participate in such pastimes…

"What do you mean?" Alec asked, looking uncomfortable and prepared to call for backup. Loki knew something he wasn't supposed to know and that was disarming to the guard.

"Oh!" Loki looked concerned, "I thought it was common knowledge that there is a captive on the floor below mine!"

Alec didn't relax an inch, but he did nod. "Some people know, but we don't like to go spreading it around. It would make the others nervous if they knew who it was."

Interesting.

"I would never tell that lot a word about it!" It was true, he rarely interacted with the others and wouldn't tell them anything of importance anyway. The fools didn't deserve to know anything.

"Good." Alec's muscles unknotted and he adjusted his grip on his weapon.

"I simply felt bad for the poor soul down there. He doesn't get to participate in our lovely, _rehabilitative_ day of leisure. What a pity," Loki sighed heavily, "I know this monthly gathering does my own rattled mind good." The guard was putty in his hands.

"Well, the guy downstairs is allowed visitors every once in awhile… I could ask if we could send someone down there on Game Day with a board game," Alec hesitated and then smiled slightly, "I hear he likes chess."

When the second Tuesday of the next month finally rolled around Loki was smug to find that Alec was the guard coming to release him from his cell for the day. He was not surprised, however, as he was not called the God of Tricks and Lies for nothing.

"How is your feline companion?"

Alec smiled brightly. "Noodle? He's doing good. I bought this little laser light and he just loves to chase it around the apartment. It's pretty funny to watch."

"You should film it and show me sometime." Loki really had no interest in the cat, but the more trust he could acquire the better. Alec was simply a tool to be used to assuage the Jotun's curiosity.

"So, I talked with the higher ups here at the facility and they said it would be okay if one of the prisoners went downstairs to play a quick game of chess with Erik. Since you showed such interest I thought you might be the man… uh… alien for the job." The young man lead him to the end of a hall where a broom closet sat and threw open the door. Beyond the many brooms and mops there was a small knob. Alec pushed it and a secret passage was revealed. They stepped through. Before them was a elevator made completely of glass and plastic.

"An interesting design choice."

"Yeah," The guard nodded to the guard at the door to the lift, "Time to lose any metal you've got. Step through the metal detector please, then we can get on the elevator."

"By all means." The only metal he had with him was on his handcuffs, which were switched for ones made of durable plastic. The two boarded the elevator. They arrived in a pristinely white room at the bottom of the lift and Loki felt as if something about the place was off. Then he realized what it was. There was no metal anywhere. None. The guards' (and there were a lot of them) weapons were even made of plastic.

"Does this prisoner have a severe allergy to all things metal?" Loki asked, passing an alcove that housed a plastic wheelchair, "And a need for wheeled chair?" Surely not, for someone in such a weak state could not be the all-powerful mystery man that made the other prisoners quake in their boots.

"Nah, the chair is for his most regular visitor, and the metal, well… Let's just say we're all a lot safer leaving that stuff far away from him." Alec escorted him to the beginning of an extendable plastic tunnel and left him in the hands of another guard. The tunnel unfolded and shot out toward a cell. The cell was made entirely of plastic as well and stood on a pedestal in the middle of a huge room.

"Alright, let's go Joki." The guard, gruffly grabbed his arm and hauled him down the tunnel. Loki was too pleased at getting to meet this secretive prisoner to correct the guard on his name.

When the got to the cell Loki peered inside and saw an old man laying on a cot made of, not surprisingly, plastic. The sight of the elderly fellow was a tad disappointing, but perhaps it would be best not to judge a book by its cover in this case. The clear walls of the room reminded Loki a great deal of his time spent on the Helicarrier, but it was probably best not to linger on that… after all, _he'd_ escaped from his cell.

"Who has come to see me?" The man on the cot asked in a voice that could only be described as majestic, "Some new therapist?" He sat up and looked over the guard first and then his smirking visitor, "No, a psychoneurotic extraterrestrial. A fascinating change of pace, I must admit."

"I come as a friend," Loki said and the guard frowned suspiciously, "An ally in this lonesome place."

"The smug look on your face would suggest otherwise. Wipe away that ridiculous smile and perhaps we can talk, boy." The old prisoner rose from his cot and flicked his gaze over to a table set up with a chess board.

"Forgive me, it is hard to contain my excitement at meeting you, Erik." He'd just overheard Alec say the name, but this man didn't need to know that.

"Do you know how to play chess, Loki?"

"That is one of the reasons I am here. Would you prefer the black pieces or the white?"

"Black. Take a seat."

"I would assume the white moves first on Midgard the same as it does on Asgard?"

"Yes, but I'd prefer to know more about you before making a move of my own."

They began playing, in complete silence. Loki had a thousand questions on his tongue, but decided that if he was to make the first move in chess then this man would be the first to speak. After roughly five minutes of evenly matched playing Erik spoke.

"Might I ask your purpose for being here?" His wise blue-grey eyes never left the board.

"I thought you might enjoy some company." Loki glanced up.

"I meant, boy, your reason for being in this retched building. Surely you did not allow yourself to be arrested for the sake of visiting me."

"No, I tried to initiate an interspecies war from a pivotal point in New York. You?"

The old man smiled very slightly. "Same."

"How coincidental. How were you stopped?" The trickster absentmindedly moved his queen and had her captured in flash.

"A team of superpowered individuals banded together and allied themselves with my former best friend. You?"

Loki laughed. "Same."

"Hmm," Erik met his eyes briefly and then turned back to the game. They were silent for a time longer and then finally the old man spoke again, "Checkmate."

Loki stared in confusion at the board. Sure enough, he'd lost to the Midgardian. The game had gained him very little knowledge about this enigmatic prisoner, but perhaps he could find out more in future visits.

"You are a decent chess player, but I'd appreciate it if we didn't play again."

"Why not?" Loki asked, baffled for the second time in sixty seconds.

"I said you were decent… I only play the best," The old man stood from his chair and watched as the plastic tunnel extended toward his prison to take Loki back with it, "However, if you do worm your way back here I'd prefer you bring with you some real metal instead of just your silver tongue."

"If you told me for what purpose you would use it then I might." Loki said and and the guard grunted in disapproval.

"If you would give me even the smallest amount of metal you could find," Erik smiled as cockily as Loki had when he'd first entered the plastic cell, "I would be able to deprive every insufferable human in this building of their lives."

The guard pulled the Jotun out of the cell, but that didn't stop him from meeting the frightening gaze of the old man. They held a small, private staring contest between the two of them and, much to his embarrassment, Loki blinked first by looking away. The eyes of the old man would haunt his nightmares for the next month.

What a powerful ally. If only the trickster wasn't too afraid to bring him the metal he wanted.

 **A/N: There are so many stories out there were Loki is the best villain out there and how he's so undefeatable. Okay, yeah, those stories are fun, but I got to thinking, what if there was someone who gave Loki the chills? Who better than Magneto? Of course, then I started thinking about how similar their plans were. Start an interspecies war (whether between humans and mutants or humans and Chitauri) from a pivotal point in New York (Stark Tower for Loki, Statue of Liberty for Erik) and then get stopped by some super heroes and your former best friend (Thor and Prof. X). Anywho, I just had some fun writing this and I'd very much like some feedback if you'd been willing to review. Thanks for reading! :)**


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